Incorporating Metadata into Search UIs

Marti Hearst

UC Berkeley

The Simplicity / Flexibility Tradeoff

wizard hyperlinks text search

Standard Search

Few operators, but Many many input values (words) Results differ widely depending on the values

used

How to Control Flexibility?

Focus on the task.

The Importance of the Task

Results from HCI suggest the importance of taking the task into account.

Searching patent databases Proving non-infringement Browsing newsgroups Finding the denial-of-service

hacker Getting all satellite news Anticipating the competition

The Importance of the Task

Example: How does Web page download time effect usability?

In one study, Spool found: (56kbit modem)

Amazon: 36 sec/page (avg) About.com: 8 sec/page (avg)

Users rated the sites: Fastest: Amazon Slowest: About.com

Why?

The Importance of the Task

Perceived speed Strong correlation between perceived speed

and whether the users felt they completed their task

Strong correlation between perceived speed and whether the users felt they always knew what to do next (scent).

How to Incorporate the Task?

Restrict Flexibility in motivated ways: Restrict collection: Vortals Restrict suggested search results: Previews

Metadata types

Time/Date Topic RoleGeoRegion

Two Approaches

Use metadata to select a subset of the collection to search over

Use metadata to suggest where to go next

A simpler example (FindLaw)

Only one topic – law Many different legal sources

Slicing by Topic Only

Generic search interface not enough No support for legal tasks

Find prior art for patent infringement case Find weaknesses in the application of

intellectual property law in the 6th circuit court of appeals

Rather than search as usual across an intersection of metadata types …

Information Previews: where to go next

Task-Specific Preview CombinationsA Simple Example

Yahoo restaurant guide combines: Region Topic (restaurants) Related Information

Other attributes (cuisines) Other topics related in place and time (movies)

Green: restaurants & attributes

Red: related in place & time

Yellow: geographic region

Combining Information Types

Region State

City

A & E Film Theatre Music Restaurants

California Eclectic Indian French Assumed task: looking for

evening entertainment

Other Possible Combinations

Region + A&E City + Restaurant + Movies City + Weather City + Education: Schools Restaurants + Schools …

Bookstore preview combinations topic + related topics topic + publications by same author topic + books of same type but related topic

Pre-defined Sources

Decide in advance which collections to show results from

Places search results in context Problem: the same metadata is used for

all queries

Information previews

Use the metadata to show where to go next More flexible than canned hyperlinks Less complex than full search

Help users see and return to what happened previously

Reduces mental work Recognition over recall Suggest alternatives

The Importance of Informative Previews

Jared Spool’s studies (www.uie.com) More clicks are ok if

The “scent” of the target does not weaken If users feel they are going towards, rather

than away, from their target.

The Importance of Informative Previews

How to indicate “scent”? Information organization reflects tasks Longer, more descriptive links Show category subtopic information Breadth vs. depth tradeoffs

CNN categores (more scrolling) vs. Yahoo’s (more clicking) Menu studies Larson & Czerwinski study Intermediate breadth vs.

depth generally best

Problem with Previews

Standard approaches Hand edited, predefined Not tailored to task as it develops Not personalized Not dynamic

A new project: FLAMENCOFLexible Access using MEtadata in Novel COmbinations

Main idea: Preview and postview information Determined dynamically and (semi)

automatically, based on current task

Flamenco: Dynamic Previews

Medical example Allow user to select metadata in any order At each step, show different types of relevant

metadata, based on prior steps and personal history, include # of documents

Previews restricted to only those metadata types that might be helpful

Asthma > Steroids

1. A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma.2. Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate.

1. A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma.2. Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate.

Steroids•Pregnanes• Pregnadienes (5)• Prednisone (5)• Pregnenes• Budesonide (4)• Corticosterone (3)

Other Views• Admin & Dosage (50)• Drug Effects (20• Therapeutic Use (25)• Risk Factors (4)• More …

User Preferred• Musculoskeletal (4)•Drug Resistance (6)

•All Categories (99)

99 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Steroids] [Cluster]

1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children.2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children.…

1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children.2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children.…

Asthma > Steroids > Admin & Dosage

1. Dosage levels for asthmatic steroids: A survey.1. Dosage levels for asthmatic steroids: A survey.

Steroids•Pregnanes• Pregnadienes (3)• Prednisone (5)

Related Categories•Inhalators (40)•Emotional Effects (25)•Preferred Suppliers (30)

User Preferred• Musculoskeletal (0)•Drug Resistance (2)

•All Categories (50)

50 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Dosage] [Cluster]

1. Optimal dosage levels for prednisone in the treatment of childhood asthma.2. …

1. Optimal dosage levels for prednisone in the treatment of childhood asthma.2. …

Other paths: back up and go forward

Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide > Huang

Asthma > Huang > Budesonide

Asthma > Steroids

Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide

Dynamic Metadata Previews

How different from Yahoo & Amazon? Dynamically determine what to show next

Yahoo’s combos are predefined Amazon’s are also predefined, and limited to taste

and general topic only

A way to seamlessly integrate Related topics User preferences (personalization) Context-sensitivity

Evaluation Methodology

Regression Test Select a set of tasks

Use these throughout the evaluation Start with a baseline system

Evaluate using the test tasks Add a feature

Evaluation again Compare to baseline Only retain those changes that improve results

Summary

Standard search is too flexible Hyperlinks too restrictive Task-centric approaches

Task-specific collections Flamenco: Showing next choices / previews

Issues How to identify tasks? Given lots of task-specific UIs, how to find the right one?